The nationwide preliminary injunction keeping the U.S. NIH from slashing its indirect cost rate to a flat 15% has become permanent. In issuing the permanent injunction and final judgment April 4 in three challenges to the rate change, Judge Angel Kelley, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, said the NIH’s Feb. 7 notice that it would begin imposing the 15% rate Feb. 10 to all existing and future grants violated the Administrative Procedure Act, as the action was arbitrary and capricious, was impermissibly retroactive and failed to follow notice-and-comment procedures.

French venture capital firm Karista led a series B extension financing round for Samantree Medical SA to take the total raised in the round to $20 million. The funds will be used to launch Samantree’s Histolog scanner in the U.S. market.

Radiopharmaceuticals, including 16α-18F-fluoro-17β-estradiol (18F-FES) PET/CT, are emerging as powerful tools with new diagnostic and therapeutic potential in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, Han Sang-won, professor from the department of nuclear medicine at Asan Medical Center, recently told BioWorld.

Mehmet Oz won the U.S. Senate’s nod as the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Oz brought in 53 aye votes to 45 nays in the Senate’s April 3 confirmation tally, and inherits a complicated task as the Medicare breakthrough devices coverage program continues to face substantial challenges.